Have You Heard?
Google SSL Certificate Security Changes will Affect Millions!
Following a two-year- old battle, Google and Symantec have agreed that Google’s Chrome browser will no longer recognize SSL certificates issued by Symantec.
Will this change affect you?
If your company relies on Chrome as its web browser, but is using a Secure Sockets Layer (SSL)— the standard security technology for establishing an encrypted link between a server and web browser to ensure data passed between the two remains private—it is not too late to avoid a potential mess.
After a two-year- old feud, Google and Symantec have agreed. Google’s Chrome web browser will no longer recognize SSL certificates issued by Symantec, which has a portfolio of security certificates issued by various authorities the company bought.
It’s a potentially big problem for a lot of businesses, not to mention individuals.
Symantec certificates account for about 75 percent, or one-third of all web certificates, according to an article by Security Intelligence. Since launching in 2008, Google Chrome has gained considerable headway. In fact, today it dominates web browser usage in the United States with 44.5 percent market share. Apple’s Safari web browser ranks second place, but pales in comparison at 25.4 percent, according to the federal government’s Digital Analytics Program.
The reasons Google’s Chrome team offered for its decision was that Symantec has not properly validated thousands of certificates and, in addition, has actually mis-issued at least 30,000 certificates. As a result of this claim, Google—the largest search engine, offering Internet users access to more than eight billion URLs— has lost confidence in Symantec.
Google’s proposal says it will distrust any Symantec-issued certificates before June 1, 2016.
Please note:
All clients that host their website with WebRealSimple are in good hands. We have automatically converted your websites to HTTPS security — the latest standard form for accessing websites and trusting data integrity and information will be encrypted.